MCSM 100 Fanfic Challenge!
by Ariza Luca
Summary: Fluffy oneshots based on one-word (or, well, up to three word) prompts. Be prepared for Lukesse, Luktra, Jetra, Aidesse, Harvor, Ivoren, and Magnugaard! (There will be no lemons. The most 'heated' activity they'll be doing is perhaps an intense kissing session.)
1. Innocence - Lukesse

**Innocence (Lukesse)**

* * *

"Hey, Lukas!" Jesse went puffing up the very large hill.

The little blonde boy looked over at his black-haired friend, a broad grin practically splitting his face. "Hey, Jesse!" he called, waving to the girl wildly as she reached the crest of the hill.

She proceeded to flop forward and sprawl facefirst in the sun-warmed grass. "Awww!" she said, rather loudly, although her voice was muffled from being smothered in grass, "this hill's too tall!"

"Heehee," and Lukas grinned mischievously at the little girl, blue eyes glinting with more than a hint of mischief, "maybe you're just too short."

"Take that back!" And she jumped back up with no hint of the fatigue she'd just shown and started chasing the blonde boy around the base of the huge oak tree wildly, swinging at him jokingly as the taller blonde boy dodged just in time. "Meanie!"

"Shorty!"

"Sky!"

"Hey, that's a girl's name!"

"Well you're a meanie!"

Finally, the two children really were too tired to continue their joking game of Tag, and Lukas flopped backwards into the grass. Jesse giggled and landed right next to him, black hair tickling his fingers as she shifted her head. "I see a chickie."

Lukas looked at the cloud that Jesse was pointing at. "That chickie is a cat," he told her.

"No it's- oh... actually if I tilt my head the way you have it, yeah, it's a cat."

"Heehee."

"Don't laugh at me, you meanie!"

Lukas giggled again and then had to roll away to avoid the swat Jesse tried to deliver. "Shortie."

"Sky, don't be mean!"

"My name's not Sky!"

* * *

Lukas climbed the hill, adjusting his armor straps. He hadn't been up here in the longest time, but he was distracted from that thought by the sight of Jesse leaning against the tree trunk and looking at the sky aimlessly. Her armor was still on, as well, and Lukas had the feeling she hadn't even bothered to take it off but had just flopped down against the tree.

"Hey, Jesse."

Jesse's head lowered to see him, big green eyes blinking. "Oh, hey Lukas. Funny seeing you here," and she smiled slightly.

He plopped down next to her with a relieved sigh. Jesse had been right back then; this hill _was_ way too tall. "Yeah, we haven't been here since we were kids," he agreed, leaning his head against the thick oak trunk of the tree.

"Speak for yourself," Jesse teased him gently, making the blonde scowl at her jokingly. And then she smiled and he chuckled a bit as they looked up at the clouds.

Jesse tilted her head to one side thoughtfully, making Lukas wonder what she was talking about, before realizing he could see some clouds reflected in her eyes. He watched her for a few more minutes before realizing he'd kind of been staring and quickly looking away, cheeks turning a tint of red. "I see a chick," she said at length.

Lukas leaned to one side to see which cloud Jesse was talking about, his head right next to hers, ignoring the close proximity in which they were now in. Although Jesse certainly noticed and her cheeks began to slowly turn pink"... that chick looks like a cat."

"Ha-ha." And Jesse swatted him gently with a soft laugh, "you really haven't changed, Sky."

Lukas's face instantly turned six shades of red as he started spluttering in protest. "Th-that's-!"

Jesse burst into laughter as the blonde punched her on the shoulder, to no effect; Jesse just kept on laughing. Lukas scowled at her playfully again, but a small smile was slowly forming on his face as he looked at the giggling black-haired female.

Even though years had passed since that sunny day on the hill, Jesse still had that faint glow of innocence.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey guys! Yes, I'm publishing another story. It's how I'm going to deal with fluff and stuff (hey that rhymed). At least it's more like a oneshot book. I hope you know the drill with these!**

 **If you don't, look it up, I'm not sure how to explain it.**

 **The pairings (yes, I'm using more than one pairing, deal with it) in this fic are Lukesse (female Jesse), Luktra, Jetra, Jesskas (male Jesse), Harvor, Ivoren, and Magnugaard. Obviously this one was Lukesse xD I'll be cycling through and doing the ones that fit the characters most, so towards the end we might have some odd ones.**

 **And yes, this was a short one. Deal with it. xD**

 **Welp, see you next oneshot. Please go vote on the poll on my profile, by the way.**

 **TOODLES!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	2. Gray - Ivoren (Merry Early Christmas!)

**Gray - Ivoren**

* * *

"Hey, Ivor!"

The black-haired teenager looked up from his book as the usual end-of-the-day crowd flooded around him, getting jolted back to reality, wavy black locks shifting, before turning his head- and getting pretty much flattened to the floor by his over-excited ginger friend.

"Ow, hi, Soren," he said, not really smiling at said friend.

Soren beamed at Ivor, both kind of sheepishly and completely happily. "Hi Ivor!" he said cheerfully, ignoring the chuckles of bystanders in the hallway. This had become a usual occurrence- Soren was not exactly what you would call elegant. In fact, he was what you would call 'hyperactive'.

Or 'crazy'. Depended on how polite you decided to be.

Soren was pretty much straddling Ivor as he grabbed his backpack and started rifling through it, chucking his math textbook, a potion book that Ivor had lent him (Ivor winced slightly at that), and several empty bottles (they smashed upon impact with the floor and sent broken glass spraying onto random people's shoes), before wrestling a small box-like thing and plopping it onto Ivor's chest. Ivor looked at it from where he was practically flattened on the floor, having to look cross-eyed down his nose. It was a gray box with snowflakes on it and a white ribbon sloppily binding it shut. "Merry Christmas!"

Ivor's eyes widened a little bit.

He'd _totally_ forgotten it was Christmas.

Because of his penchant of forgetting the holiday, he'd forced himself to go buy gifts for all his friends two months beforehand. However, this came back to still kick him in a place where it hurt because he still hadn't wrapped them, even though he'd left them in his backpack in the most inconvenient spot to remind him.

He sat up slowly, Soren shifting so he was sitting on Ivor's legs as the dark-blue eyed boy slowly picked up the box. The cyan-eyed ginger-haired future architect grinned brightly at him. "Merry Christmas," he repeated, seeming oblivious to the fact that they were in the middle of the hallway at school.

There were now lots of giggles in the hallway, especially from the girls, but neither of them really cared. Ivor just didn't care in general and Soren was staring at Ivor with such a hopeful look that he seemed to have forgotten that they were in the hallway.

"I- I, I, I got you- um, a gift-" Ivor stammered nervously as he reached into his own backpack and yanked his own out without fumbling it, Soren's eyes lighting up as Ivor handed him the multiple notebooks he'd spotted in the store. It was a huge bundle and it fit nicely into a small box, but you could take out each individual tiny notebook for notes on anything. "Sorry, I- I forgot to wrap-" he began to splutter out an apology but Soren cut it off abruptly.

"Thanks, Ivor!" Soren was beaming at the black-haired male so earnestly Ivor was actually starting to blush. He nudged the black-haired male in the ribs with that hopeful look. "C'mon, open yours!"

Ivor looked down at the small box and carefully pulled the ribbon free, sticking it in his pocket for possible future use, before lifting the lid off. Inside the small box was a slightly messily knitted scarf with silvery-white ribbon stitched through the... er, stitches on the ends. It was easily one of the nicest articles of clothing Ivor would probably own. He didn't care much about fashion.

Ivor glanced up at Soren, who was rubbing his messy ginger head so much that his already-messy hair basically looked like a tornado at this point.

"You, you said you needed a scarf a couple weeks ago, but you always forget to get one when we all head to the store or you don't like it, so, I uh, I decided to make one for you, and Ellegaard helped pick out the yarn and the ribbon..." Soren cut off his own rambling and looked at Ivor nervously, "do you like it?"

Ivor stared at the scarf. Soren had said before, multiple times, how much he didn't like knitting. He said it was girly (Ellegaard would sock him on the arm whenever he stated this) and that it was hard to get the stitches and the needles to cooperate, and that his own stitching pretty much sucked and he might as well just go learn how to build stuff rather than attempt things like this.

So the fact that Soren had made this for him at all was the nicest thing he'd ever gotten. It made his own gift of the notebooks look stupid in comparison. For some reason, Ivor was really glad that their other friends weren't here in the crowd. Or, if they were, they were in the background rather than in this little moment between the two boys.

A slow, tiny smile formed on Ivor's face. "I love it."

* * *

Ivor sat by himself in the woods, staring aimlessly into the forest before reaching into his bag to see if he could find something to keep himself warm. There was a brisk wind picking up, and the forecast had said it would snow- of course it would snow, Ivor leaving his best and pretty much only friends the same week as Christmas wasn't bad enough, it just _had_ to snow when he'd just up and left-

His fingers found something woolly and warm, and he blinked before poking it again. Yes, this was definitely something warm, and woolly, and something knitted maybe. He didn't own anything like...

He leaned over and pawed through the bag, brow furrowing, before pulling out a gray scarf with silver-white ribbon stitched through the ends.

The ribbon was starting to fray slightly in the stitching, and the yarn was slightly dirty from being squashed in the bottom of the bag and being forgotten for so long, but it was still a nice scarf, all the same. It looked quite old, and quite familiar at the same time.

Ivor stared at it for a good _two minutes_ trying to puzzle out where this scarf had come from- was it Ellegaard's? It looked faintly girly (he could NOT say that in front of her or she'd sock him in the shoulder). Had he just grabbed one of her scarves when they went to Ice Lakes or something and then forgotten to give it back? He was even vaguely debating going back to return it and pretending he was okay with them lying about this whole thing just so he didn't have to leave them- before it clicked and he found himself realizing what it was.

It was the scarf that Soren had given him all those years ago at Christmas.

Ivor kept staring at the scarf, not sure what to feel, before it started blurring and something cold landed on his hands.

He brushed a hand aimlessly over his eyes and was startled to find flakes of white mingled with hot water on the back of his hand- it had obviously started snowing.

And he obviously had tears in his eyes.

Ivor rubbed his eyes, furiously trying to rub out the tears. _I'm not crying, I'm not crying, I'm not-_

There were even more droplets on his hands after that, so he just gave up on trying to rub the tears out of his eyes and just let them bead in his eyes and slowly trail down his cheeks. At least they were kind of warm, cutting trails of warmth through his already-cold cheeks.

He put the scarf around his neck slowly to try to keep in some warmth, arms slowly going around his knees as his vision warped and blurred from the tears and looked up at the sky.

He wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad or maybe even angry that the sky was the same color of his scarf.

Gray.

* * *

 **A/N: So... since I'm gonna forget to write a Christmas story, you guys get this really depressing Christmas oneshot involving Ivoren xD**

 **I debated using mistletoe but then went 'nah' so you get depressing xD**

 **RapidSammi: Hehe xD**

 **rebekahtpe: I thought you meant Pokemon at first and then read the rest of the review and was like "Oh" But yes, moon. The sun is literally blinding.**

 **Luna96: Nope- you get Ivoren. Also, I don't know, but the ships I'm doing are Lukesse, Luktra, Jetra, Jesskas (yes, there's a difference, this is male Jesse), Harvor, Ivoren, and Magnugaard, so... can't do Axelivia...**

 **ReynaSkyrunner: Eee thanks :3**

 **Choco: Lol xD well this one is quite depressing, so...**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	3. Mistletoe - Luktra (Merry Christmas!)

**Mistletoe - Luktra**

* * *

 **It should be noted, once again, that I am ONLY doing the ships listed in the description of this story. You cannot request ships even over PM because then that messes up the pattern I set and I'll be scrambling around to figure it out again, which is what I am trying to avoid. Also, the ones I listed are the ones that I'm pretty sure I can do. I am very sorry about that.**

 **But in the future, please READ THE DESCRIPTION... I don't want to repeat this every chapter.**

 **Also, for the 100 Fanfic Challenge, I'm not doing requests, so please don't request...**

* * *

Lukas was sitting curled up on the couch as everyone milled around. He wasn't very good at parties, so he'd managed to sneak over to this relatively quiet corner. I say relatively quiet because it was still crowded as hell over here.

Jesse had come towards him at one point, presumably to chat with him, before pausing for a moment and then waving at the blonde before trotting off again, a big grin forming on her face even though she was trying to hide it. He wondered what that was about.

"Oh, hey Lukas."

Lukas looked up to see Petra wearing this gray sweater, her hair still under her signature blue-striped-bandana, one hand on her hip as she regarded the blonde. She looked nice in gray; it brought out her eyes.

"Hey," he responded, even as he vaguely wondered why Jesse was giggling now in the background there, by the fireplace.

"Mind if I join you?" Petra jerked her head slightly at the couch seat next to Lukas, who quickly scooted to his left to make room for the redhead. "Sure."

She plopped down next to him casually, leaning one cheek into her palm. "So, why you bein' lonely in the corner of the party?"

Lukas stifled a laugh and started explaining, the friendly chat between the two of them deepening into a conversation that went on for several more minutes, until Petra said, at the end of said twenty minutes, "Hold on a second, Lukas," and then turned to everyone else and shouted, "Alright, why the heck is everyone laughing?"

The laughter burst out, Jesse biting her knuckles to keep from laughing too hard and Axel pretty much howling with laughter in the corner, one hand braced against the wall as he laughed, Ivor regarding the ceiling with a broad grin on his face and Olivia was stifling her own smile. Even Aiden seemed to be fighting this huge grin on his face.

"Uh..." Jesse snickered again before lifting one hand. "Look up."

Lukas and Petra blinked at her, then at each other, and then blue and gold eyes slowly travelled up to look at the ceiling.

A tiny sprig of plant was hanging from a string. It was so small that one just strolling and sitting down wouldn't spot the tiny plant hanging from the ceiling.

Which of course was mistletoe.

Lukas felt his face turning fifty shades of red as he looked back at Petra again, the redhead's face as red as her short hair as her eyes flickered down to meet his as well. He'd always had a bit of a crush on her, but of course most guys who tried to ask her out she either declined or just kind of laughed at them, so he hadn't vocalized it.

Well, except to Jesse. A couple weeks after the whole fiasco with the Witherstorm she'd yanked him to one side and gone, "You like Petra, don't you?"

He'd admitted, yes, he liked Petra, and then basically rushed back out, hoping Jesse wouldn't go reporting to the redhead.

She didn't, but this worried Lukas more- at this point in time after a good _twelve months_ he was a bit more concerned with the fact that Jesse still hadn't told the redhead. This either meant she wanted something, or she had a plan or something. He had started seriously considering begging her to just tell Petra and get it over with.

"Um..." he rubbed his head, bringing himself back to reality, "well, i-it can be a q-quick kiss, I g-"

He was very abruptly cut off by Petra grabbing him, yanking him forward so that their foreheads gently clonked, and kissing him.

There was a full three seconds where Lukas was trying to process that Petra was kissing him, and her hands were cold but her lips were warm, and she smelled like a campfire, and s'mores, and she was _kissing him._

And then he decided he didn't care and reciprocated shyly, letting his eyes flutter shut.

The two of them stayed in the kiss for a good thirty seconds before Petra finally broke away, the two teenagers dragging in lungfuls of air, Petra's gold eyes practically glowing in the dim room.

"I've been waiting to do that for forever," she said breathlessly.

There was a huge cheer that rose up from the crowd in the room. "It's about time!" Ivor shouted to them in fake annoyance, his grin betraying how happy he was.

"Did Jesse tell?" Lukas glanced at Jesse, who shrugged innocently at him.

"Tell what?" This was from Petra, who looked surprised.

"That I had a crush on you- wait, crap-"

Lukas was cut off. Petra was laughing a bit, but her own face was so happy that he could tell she honestly wasn't teasing. "I thought she told you that _I_ liked _you_..." she added, still laughing.

"Why would she need to tell us? It's blatantly obvious."

"Well, NOW it is," Jesse corrected when she saw their faces go another thirteen shades of red, "but about a year ago it was just hints." She hesitated before adding, "but yeah, now it's blatantly obvious."

"Well, let's go finish this somewhere else, Lukas," and Petra grabbed the blonde and literally towed him out of the chair, even as most of the room went "Ooooooh!" loudly like a bunch of preschoolers or something.

What they ended up doing was hiding in one of the broom closets (it was snowing so hard that Petra stuck her hand outside and yanked it back inside with her hand practically caked inside a snowball after five seconds, so they couldn't just walk home) and very gladly continuing their kissing session.

It also didn't hurt that above their heads, there was another sprig of mistletoe.

 **A/N: I should be updating Hide and Seek Mode. But I'm not. You're welcome for this happier Christmas oneshot xD**

 **Please vote on the poll on my profile! If you already have, you get a virtual cookie. If you can't, you also get one. If you haven't and can, go and vote, and you can get ALL da virtual cookies! xD**

 **rebekahtpe: They lied, not Ivor... and no, haven't watched Moana yet.**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: There already was xD Here you go**

 **Choco: (dies laughing) Here you go**

 **Mysticsummer7: No, I'm sorry... xD I also don't get their personalities (well, I can get Stampy's, but not Stacy's), so it would turn out really cruddy, sorry xD**

 **MidNightTwist: Read the description, if the ship is there, I'm doing it :3**

 **Shadow Wind: Please read the description, if the ship is there, I will do it. xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	4. Are You Challenging Me? - Jetra

**Are You Challenging Me? - Jetra**

* * *

"Beat you!"

Petra groaned as she flopped down on the impromptu finish line, landing on her stomach in the sun-warmed grass. "Awww! Why are you so _fast?_ " she complained to her friend.

Jesse grinned teasingly, her green eyes sparkling with amusement. "Well... maybe you're just too slow."

Petra shot back to a full sitting position, narrowing her gold eyes at the black-haired girl. "Oh, you take that back, Jesse."

"Take what back? I said nothing." It was a wonder how this girl managed to look so _innocent._ Her green eyes would widen innocently and she'd tilt her head and you wouldn't be able to _imagine_ this girl could do anything even slightly bad.

Petra narrowed her eyes even more and jabbed her finger at Jesse insistently."No, I definitely heard you say that I'm too slow."

"What are you talking about, Petra? I think you're hearing things." Jesse looked practically _angelic_ in that moment. You could almost see the halo over her head.

Petra socked her friend on the shoulder, Jesse letting out a musical laugh at her reaction. "Go to the Nether!" Petra snapped playfully.

"Hmmm, no thank you. I quite like where I'm sitting right now." To prove her point, Jesse crossed her arms and flopped onto her back, curling up her legs so that Petra couldn't just drag her off the hill.

Petra grinned at the black-haired girl, but the grin faded as she realized that she was flirting with Jesse. _Again._

It wasn't like it was a regular occurence (okay, well, that was a lie...), or that she was doing it on purpose. It's just nowadays whenever she was teasing Jesse, it would come out a lot more flirty than she meant it to.

Now, Petra was pretty much physically incapable of flirting. Like, twirling her hair around her finger and making moon eyes at a boy, no, ick, ew, she was good, thank you very much. But palling around with people and acting a _little_ too friendly with them...? Yeah, that sort of 'flirting' was what Petra could do.

But Petra had never 'flirted' with girls before. In fact, up until a couple weeks ago, she'd been perfectly positive that she was only interested in guys.

And then suddenly she'd realized, one day when chatting with Jesse, that she thought the girl sitting next to her wasn't just _pretty_ , like stating a fact- you know, like the sky is blue and grass is green and zombies smell nasty- no, she was _pretty_. She found herself staring at Jesse's glossy black hair and sparkly green eyes, and the way the girl would laugh at the stupidest things, and the way Jesse's lips would curve when she laughed, and she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss Jesse.

Which wasn't really... well, really, Petra didn't know if she should just be okay with this or tell herself to go to the Nether. Jesse _wasn't interested in girls._ It was just a matter of fact; Jesse had shown no interest in other girls.

I mean, sometimes she flirted _back_ to Petra, but that was probably just Petra interpreting a lot of overly chummy motions as something more and being ridiculous about it. Petra was NOT a stereotypical girl that giggled whenever faced with flirting with someone. No, no, no.

"Hellooooo? Earth to Peets?"

Petra snapped back to Earth and narrowed her eyes at the black-haired girl waving a hand in her face. "Don't call me that."

"I'll call you whatever you want if you don't pay attention," Jesse teased, green eyes sparkling in the way that Petra liked so much.

"Oh really? Well, then, I get to do _this-"_ and Petra lunged forward and caught Jesse by the shoulders roughly, catching her friend off guard and tackling her to the grass.

And then it happened.

Petra's hands slipped, she found herself falling forward, she slammed her palms barely managed to keep herself from conking her head right into Jesse's-

Her lips landed squarely on Jesse's.

The other girl's laugh was cut off mid-syllable, her own eyes widening as Petra froze in place, her lips pressed to Jesse's in a completely accidental kiss. Petra would've immediately jolted away, except that Jesse smelled like chocolate, and her lips tasted sweet and sour all at the same time, and she was kissing Jesse, and Jesse wasn't trying to shove her away, and she was _kissing Jesse._

A full three seconds passed, upon which Petra's brain stopped short circuiting and she dove away. "O-oh my Notch, I-I am _so_ sorry about that-!" she spluttered, feeling her face going the shade of lipstick Jesse wore at formal events (and would wipe off discreetly the minute she went to the bathroom or started to eat).

"Petra."

"It-it's just that I tackled you, a-and then I slipped, I didn't realize that that would happen-"

"Petra."

Jesse was sitting up and listening to Petra splutter helplessly, her face completely blank as she stared at Jesse. "A-and you just happened to be-"

Petra was cut off again by Jesse's lips landing squarely on hers for the second time in a minute, the black-haired girl's eyes shut as she set her lips back onto Petra's. There was a full three seconds where Petra's eyes were wide open again, staring in perfect shock at the black-haired girl, before her own eyes shut and she leaned into the kiss more fully.

The two of them remained in that position for another minute, before Jesse broke away, deeply inhaling for breath. "I was trying to say that the first kiss was nice, but this one was nicer, so that works too." Jesse smiled a little lopsided smile at Petra.

Petra stared absentmindedly at Jesse, the girl reaching up and touching her bottom lip in faint shock.

Jesse had just _kissed_ her.

She'd just _kissed_ Jesse.

"Betcha we can't make the next one even better."

Petra blinked at Jesse again. Slowly, a smirk spread over her face, wide enough that it made her teeth glint.

"Are you _challenging_ me?"

* * *

 **A/N: Fluffy oneshot that I decided to fix up and publish since I was going through my Doc Manager.**

 **Yes, the next one to have Jetra or Lukesse will have Male Jesse rather than female, but I wanted to see how I could get this to turn out xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Unfortunately not, I have a list of one-word or sentence prompts, so no requests. Sorry! :3**

 **NoItsBecky: (laughs) I'm glad you liked it so much.**

 **TheWinterAngel'sStar: (laughs) That used to be me. And then I got a growth spurt.**

 **Choco: Well, this is horrendously late, but now I have another one. ... Choco don't go clicking for a next button incessantly this time around...**

 **SquiddyTheBlaze: (laughs) I know what you mean.**

 **Emily The Avenger: (laughs) I'm glad you like this so darn much.**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	5. Deep in Thought - Harvor

**Deep in Thought - Harvor**

* * *

Ivor liked seeing Harper when she was thinking.

Her lips would twist slightly to one side and her clear, dark eyes would narrow as she stared skywards, index finger absentmindedly tapping her knee. A tabletop. Her crossed arm. Whatever it happened to be resting on at that time. Her right leg would automatically cross so that her right ankle was resting comfortably on her left knee, occasionally shifting every once in a while. Her white eyebrows would furrow slightly, giving her the look of someone who was slightly annoyed while actually being in her own thoughts the whole time.

It was different from the way he'd seen anyone else think, including all of his best friends and maybe a few other people that did NOT include his best friends.

Soren would hum mildly and drum his fingers on a tabletop, a pencil pressed to his bottom lip so that he'd possibly, if he was in thought for too long and started zoning out, would start chewing on it.

Gabriel would sit there for a long moment, squinting at something else in the room, legs crossed and hands resting on his thighs (or, well, folded in his lap, at any rate), one knee shaking slightly while he debated the thought.

Ellegaard would start to doodle while thinking, leaning her chin on her hand and staring off into space, clumsily scrawling her thoughts on the paper, no matter how random or how strange the thought happened to be. If she happened to be in the middle of a doodle when her flow of thoughts changed, her doodle would simply be abandoned in favor of a different one.

Magnus would think for about half a second, twiddling his thumbs while tilting his head to one side, before simply... _doing_ whatever it was he'd just thought of. No complicated thought process. No excess fidgeting. Just twiddling his thumbs, and a few seconds where he was actually thinking, before jumping right into it.

Even Jesse had a different way of thinking- her own, creative way of thinking that involved shifting position to whatever she felt would help her think better at the time before actually thinking. Sometimes, getting into the right position took more time than her actual thought process.

But Harper was almost like a strangely beautiful artwork, several disjointed little pieces that seemed ill-fitting flowing together to create something really nice when you took a step back and looked at it.

So he liked seeing her when she was thinking.

* * *

Harper liked seeing Ivor when he was thinking.

His face would go completely blank, rather than a scowl or a grin or a hot red blush flooding over his features, he'd just... sit there. Entranced by whatever thought had just occurred to him. He'd usually be 'reading' an alchemy book, flipping the pages every once in a while but not even looking down at the pages or even doing it at a constant interval- it was almost a sort of afterthought. He'd also just be leaning back, relaxed and calm, almost like a cat lounging on a cushion or on a chair. It was the one time he wasn't moving or fidgeting or anything.

She'd never seen anyone think the way Ivor was thinking.

Isa was a calm, methodical thinker- she'd fold her hands in her lap and gently kick her feet, lightly scuffing the bottom of her shoe against the floor rhythmically as she thought, eyes fixated on the person or thing that had started her thought process with an expression that looked rather stern. Some people had called it 'intimidating'.

Otto usually was sitting perfectly rigid, back straight and feet planted firmly on the ground, but he _did_ have a quirk where he'd rapidly tap his foot on the ground, almost comparable to a very nervous rabbit. His left hand would also be resting on his thigh but be playing with a stray string on his robe or something, fidgeting about as if he wanted to write something down.

Mevia, when _really_ in thought, would pull out a piece of yarn and start absentmindedly playing Cat's Cradle without even looking at it. She could twist up the yarn into a rather impressive knot before realizing she even had it out and then spend ages detangling it. The yarn was crooked and frayed and falling apart from the sheer amount of times she'd fiddled with it, yet Mevia still refused to throw it away. Harper had no idea why.

Hadrian was a beehive of activity when he was thinking. The fingers on his right hand would tap while his left hand would fidget with his earlobe or his collar. His left foot would shake from where it was crossed over his right leg, which was the only limb of his body that wasn't moving. His face would change smoothly, fluidly as his thought process or mood changed, making watching him while he was thinking an incredibly dizzying process.

But Ivor was simply still. He didn't move at all, save except for that occasional page flip. His face wasn't even concentrated; it was simply like a perfectly blank slate that had never been used.

So she liked seeing Ivor when he was thinking.

* * *

Sometimes, the two of them would sit on opposite sides of the kitchen table together, reading a book or simply chatting.

Maybe the New Order had popped into Crown Mesa for a visit.

Maybe Harper wanted to come see Soren, who hadn't come by in a while and was always hiding or fidgeting in a corner whenever anybody else entered the room.

Maybe Harper wanted to see _Jesse_ , who was often so busy that the most she could say to Harper was "Hi!" and then "Bye!" before popping out the door to go do whatever she needed to do.

Maybe Harper or Ivor just wanted to see each other, for reasons that they both vehemently denied whenever anyone brought it up. (Well, more Ivor than Harper... she just was rather dismissive.)

But for whatever reason, one of them would start thinking, and the other would watch them.

It was some sort of strange ritual- one stopped talking and simply started thinking. The other would watch. Then they'd resume the conversation and then the other one would stop talking and start thinking.

It was for this simple reason- this simple, quirky, silly reason that both of them shared- that they liked being deep in thought.

* * *

 **A/N: Been procrastinating on this since forever, decided that I might as well finish it. Also, changing Jesskas to Aidesse because I ship this ship for no good reason (puts head in hands) ... I'm so sorry xD**

 **NoItsBecky: (laughs) Same, tbh**

 **Emily The Avenger: Thanks, brah!**

 **RapidSammi: (squeals with you)**

 **RebekahTPE: Sneakers. If I run with heels during gym I'll break my ankle or something. xD**

 **Choco: (laughs) Good job, fam.**

 **NinaNaranja: You're welcome :3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	6. Insanity - Aidesse (Jaiden)

**Insanity - Aidesse/Jaiden**

* * *

Aiden plodded down the hallway, the only sound ringing throughout the otherwise silent hallway the sound of his shoes on stone as he approached the door he both desperately craved entry to, and the door he was quietly dreading to push inside.

Lukas had warned him that what he was about to see was... scary.

At first, he'd smirked and laughed it off a bit, seeing as Lukas was a scaredy-cat and got scared of everything. Sometimes Lukas would even jump, getting frightened by his own shadow.

And then he'd seen Petra's eyes as she'd returned from her own little visit.

What he'd seen had chilled him to the bone.

Petra's eyes were hollow, wide, staring at something that didn't exist as she immediately beelined to the others for comfort.

Petra, the redhead who journeyed to the Nether on a nearly daily basis, who got every little random thing for trades, who could kill a spider with her bare hands when she really wanted to...

Petra was _scared._

And if it scared Petra, then who knew who bad it really was?

Before he knew it, he was standing in front of the iron door. He inhaled a shaky breath, before carefully reaching out and lifting the latch on the door, hearing the metal thing clunk loudly.

The heavy iron door grinded open, scraping a bit on the stone floor as he shifted it open.

His lungs were paper-thin. Every inhale felt as if he was crumpling a paper bag; every exhale felt as though he were stomping all over it.

"Jesse?"

Toxic purple eyes raised from the ground and leveled in a stare right at him.

Familiar black hair.

Familiar gold hairpin.

Familiar everything.

But cold, unfamiliar toxic purple eyes were what were keeping Aiden from running straight to the black-haired girl and giving her a tight hug.

That, and the shackles keeping her trapped and locked down in this enclosure that had been a bedroom at some point but had become a prison, behind a set of iron bars that were in front of a wall of cracked glass.

They had taken every precaution.

Maybe that was a good thing.

"Aiden."

Aiden nearly flinched at the _normal_ tone of voice that he heard. He'd been expecting a grating, rasping shriek that made him want to clamp his hands over his ears, or maybe a low, gravelly snarl that sounded like Jesse gargled with rocks. Something monstrous, horrific, to reflect the _thing_ she had become.

But she just sounded like... Jesse.

Albeit a faintly surprised Jesse, but Jesse nonetheless.

Jesse stood up and walked over to the glass, making Aiden take a reluctant but cautious step back, hand straying to his sword in case she tried anything funny.

The glass had been engineered by Olivia after the first incident, where Jesse'd nearly strangled Ivor to death before Petra had fled in and sliced right through the tentacle and gotten Ivor out of there, to be extremely durable. Axel could've thrown an anvil at it, and it would've just bounced right off.

But Jesse was stronger than Axel, now that she wasn't Jesse. Much, _much_ stronger.

And they all knew it.

Even so, all of her attempts so far had only cracked the glass.

So perhaps that offered some comfort.

"You look... different." He snapped back to reality to see Jesse looking him up and down a bit. She brushed the long sidebang of black hair that she'd started wearing her hair in, the gold hairpin pinning back the wrong wave of hair, the right and not the left as he was- as they were _all_ accustomed to- revealing scaly black skin that made Aiden's skin crawl.

She smiled- a completely humorless expression that simply twitched her lips up at the ends into something that was alien and unfamiliar and just...

... _not_ Jesse.

"Then again, so do I. So maybe that's not so much of a surprise," the girl said mildly, continuing to look Aiden up and down with that wave of hair brushed away from her toxic purple eyes.

"Stop it." Those two words slipped out from between Aiden's lips before he could stop them.

Jesse tilted her head, taking on a confused expression. "Stop it? Stop what?" she asked innocently.

But Aiden could see the malicious glint in her eyes.

The glint of light that marked madmen apart from normal people, the glint of light that was a telltale sign of danger.

The glint of light that made Jesse not Jesse anymore.

"Stop pretending to be Jesse." His throat was starting to close up painfully.

He hadn't liked Jesse very much at first.

No, that wasn't accurate.

He'd _hated_ Jesse at first.

Always quietly showing up at Endercon, always mildly showing up at the building competition _every single year_ , losing in the competition _every single year_ , and still quietly returning _every single year_ , not at all discouraged by their loss the previous year, always cheerfully telling her team to "cheer up, we'll win it for sure next year!" and losing again anyway.

Every. Single. Year.

And then she'd started interesting him.

It was hard not to.

When you got past the annoying determination, and the overly cheerful behavior, and the mild personality that was almost absurdly adorable, and the fact that she looked like a porcelain doll, and the fact that she really didn't seem to mind losing in the Endercon building competition _every single year_...

Well, it was hard not to be interested.

She'd pretend to hate him in front of her friends. And he'd pretend to hate her right back.

But at Endercon, the two of them would sit down in some obscure corner and halfheartedly trade insults while playing a board game of some sort- usually Monopoly, since that took up a lot of time.

He always let Jesse win.

She always pretended not to notice.

He wondered if she even remembered.

She'd forgotten this year.

He'd gone too far this year at the building competition. Setting Reuben on fire... well, he hadn't meant to do _that_. But that had been the result. And that had upset Jesse.

Maybe she'd forgotten, or she just didn't want to talk to him about it, or maybe she'd just stopped caring about the game and the tradition they'd started together every year at Endercon since five years ago.

But she just hadn't showed up.

Alright, if he was to be honest...

 _he_ had forgotten their tradition as well.

And now there wasn't much of a chance that Jesse remembered that tradition _at all_.

"Oh, but I'm not _pretending,_ Aiden." Jesse offered him a cheerful smile. "I _am_ Jesse. I've just changed a bit, is all."

Yeah, right.

"Awww, you don't believe me?"

Oops.

Looks like he'd just said that out loud.

Jesse pouted playfully, a look that normal Jesse would never have worn on her face, let alone even _considered_ wearing on her face. "Well, I guess we've both changed quite a bit, then. For you not to believe me anymore..."

She tilted her head. "Do you really hate me that much?"

Aiden decided not to answer that.

"Well, but then you didn't like me before this anyway. So maybe it's better that we stay this way." Jesse simply shrugged and slipped into a cross-legged sitting position on the floor, that strange glint of madness still playing in her eyes as she tilted her head back to meet his eyes. "Though, if you don't like me, there's something that we have to wonder..."

She purposefully trailed off.

Hating the fact that he had to pick up that sentence to figure out what she wanted to ask, what she was trying to say, Aiden asked, "What is it?"

"Why would you come visit me? If you don't like me, surely you'd just decide to not come at all, wouldn't you?"

Aiden decided not to speak at all, staring at the girl he'd started becoming interested by.

The girl he'd started becoming interested _in_.

"Well, but the human mind works in strange ways, so maybe it's just something you wanted to do. Or maybe there was something you wanted to say to me...?" Jesse trailed off again.

Well... there was nothing to lose anymore.

He'd already lost everything there was to lose.

"I love you," he told her.

And then he was out the door, running back down the hallway, the huge iron door still swinging shut behind him slowly as he bolted from the room, not daring to look back as tears threatened to spill out of his eyes.

And that was why he missed the way Jesse's toxic purple eyes flickered green momentarily, tears springing into her eyes as she stared after Aiden from where she was still sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"I know."

She thought about it for a minute, eyes still that luminous green, tears slowly dripping down their face like some foreign entity as she stared at the floor and thought.

She looked back up at the pinprick of light that was still filtering through the slowly shutting iron door's doorway, even though there was no way that he'd hear her.

"I love you too."

And then the door slammed shut, leaving the girl who'd been possessed by the Witherstorm to her own insanity.


End file.
